Some questions for the England-based readers only…How’s that World Cup fever going for you? Engaged with every match? Wallchart up to date? Group chat incessantly pinging with messages about Ecuador’s two-year unbeaten run coming to an end?No? Yeah, you’re not the only ones. Be it the awkward time difference, England’s late start (their first match, against Croatia, is on Wednesday) or perhaps just indifference to the national team’s prospects, this World Cup hasn’t caught fire.We say England rather than the United Kingdom as, well, perhaps you wouldn’t expect people in Wales or Northern Ireland to be hugely enthused given they didn’t qualify, while in Scotland, even allowing for their 2am kick-off against Haiti on Sunday, interest in the tournament is huge after a 28-year absence.So what’s the problem in England, if you agree there is one?The bloated format may be playing a part. Expanding to 48 teams creates too many unappealing fixtures. Add in the fact that eight of 12 third-place teams will progress to the knockout stage — with 72 group matches being played to eliminate just 16 sides — and it means we might have to wait a couple of weeks before we have a consistent run of thrilling, jeopardy-filled matches.But the main reason — and yes, people in the United States, South America, Asia and Oceania who enjoy watching European club football, we can absolutely hear you shouting, ‘Well, duh’ — is that the kick-off times are really inconvenient.England will be among the last teams to take to the pitch at this World Cup (Juan Mabromata/AFP via Getty Images)Of 104 matches at the tournament, 53 will kick off between 11pm and 6am. That’s more than half of the tournament’s matches being played during sleepy time for the majority of the country, including nearly 60 per cent of the group-stage games (43 of 72).While some of us are happy to turn into insomniacs and start drinking coffee at 9pm to pull an all-nighter (after all, there are four years to catch up on sleep after this), your typical nine-to-fiver can’t do that, unless they possess the ability to survive on just a few hours’ sleep every night.Schoolchildren have got little-to-no chance of watching most matches (depending on the strictness of parents).Can you catch up on the overnight action in the morning? Well, not really. On Wednesday morning, for example, how are you going to take in three games from the night before (dark horses Norway kick off against Iraq at 11pm, followed by holders Argentina and the GOAT Lionel Messi against Algeria at 2am and then Austria versus Jordan at 5am)?Unless you want to make yourself dizzy watching three games on 2x speed (which would still take around two and a half hours) before your morning commute, it just isn’t feasible.The lack of a round-up, 50-minute Match of the Day-style highlights show at, say, 7am is where the gaps in your knowledge could be filled in here, in a really palatable, accessible way, but aside from a full rewatch of matches (they are being posted on BBC iPlayer and ITVX pretty promptly after games finish), your only option is eight-minute highlights on either service.They are fine and certainly appreciated in a morning rush (both broadcasters also post match manager and player interview clips), but offer no analysis, context or narrative around the games.Key matches and junctures are being missed by English audiences. The USMNT’s 4-1 thrashing of Paraguay was the moment the tournament seriously kicked off, with a host nation enraptured by arguably their country’s best World Cup performance of all time.Many fans in England missed the United States’ opening game, a 4-1 demolition of Paraguay (Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)In front of 70,000 people generating an incredible atmosphere in Los Angeles, plus the glamour of Tom Cruise, David Beckham and Katy Perry, the fireworks, the rousing Star-Spangled Banner, it was an event and occasion to embrace, a side of the World Cup we can all relate to. But in the UK it was on from 2am to 4am.All of which makes this feel like the World Cup that England forgot, or that forgot England. So far, anyway.The good news is it gets much better as the tournament progresses.For a start, England’s three group games kick off at 9pm (Croatia), 9pm (Ghana) and 10pm (Panama).As for the World Cup ‘sleep tax’ of watching your home country’s matches, England fare very well. To contrast, pity the poor Tunisians who started their week by getting up at 3am on Monday to watch their team get shellacked 5-1 by Sweden.